Wireless communications systems of various kinds are known in the art. These include systems where base stations support the temporary allocation of carrier resources on an as-needed basis to end user platforms. In some cases, as with many cellular telephony systems, an on-going communication can be handed over from one base station to another. In other application settings, such a handover is not available due, at least in part, to administrative differences. (As used herein, the expression “administrative differences” will be understood to refer to differences that are based upon operational agreements that pertain to allowed functionality.)
As an example of the latter, some application settings contemplate employing both wide-area base stations and small-area base stations (where the small-area base stations might serve, for example, a home residence or a local office setting while the wide-area base stations might serve an entire neighborhood or the like). Both types of base station use, at least to some extent, the same pool of carrier resources. A basic operating presumption is that an end user platform that is associated with a given small-area base station will use the latter's resources when possible. As a previously arranged administrative relationship must exist between the end user platform and the small-area base station, handovers between the wide-area base stations on the one hand and the small-area base stations on the other hand are unsupported.
Generally speaking, the use of the shared carrier resources by the small-area base stations is to be respectful of and subservient to the use of such resources by the wide-area base stations. As one approach in this regard, the prior art proposes to simply permanently segregate the carrier resources that are used by each type of base station. In many cases, however, this leads to technical, legal, and/or efficiency and loading concerns. Other proposed solutions are potentially useful in a limited application setting where, for example, there is only one small-area base station in operation. As additional small-area base stations come into play, however, existing resource allocation schemes yield less than satisfactory results. Yet other proposed solutions impose a considerable burden on the end user platform to support the interference-avoidance functionality.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. It will further be appreciated that certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. It will also be understood that the terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.